Enhancing the Model School Network

The Model School Network (MSN), established in 2013 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is a coalition of education organizations working in Haiti. MSN works to improve outcomes for children in Haiti’s Central Plateau through sustainable, multi-layered, data driven, and effective governmental and civil society partnerships. The MSN strategy is to leverage the coalition of partnerships to deliver strategic interventions in a set of school networks in the Central Department to demonstrate key components of an effective system.

Our Approach

The GC-DWC is working with partners to create a standardized set of tools for academic performance which is needed across all Haitian primary schools, and particularly within the MSN. The Center will lead a process to create and embed basic data collection into the daily practice and routines of 200 MSN schools. The GC-DWC, and Child Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) are also working with the Universite Quisqueya’s (UNiQ) INNOVED  to create a national education platform to pull together all education data and research findings, including the GC-DWC’s randomized control trials on literacy and SEL programs, to inform policy and practice moving forward. 

In addition, GC-DWC and UNiQ has established task forces composed of MSN partners and child development and education specialists to analyze and offer suggestions to improve early grade curriculum used in the MSN. These task forces focus on pedagogy (how to teach, strategies/tools for better engagement) and curriculum (1st through 6th grade, with a special focus on adding a social and emotional learning curriculum).

Goals, Progress, and Impact

1. Increase capacity for multi-level data collection, annual benchmarking, evaluation, and visualization within participating schools, the subnetwork, the broader MSN coalition, and Haiti’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training/Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle (MENFP). 

2. Increase access to professional development materials, coursework, and programs for MSN educators in early grade teaching and learning.

3. Support evidenced-based communication of lessons learned in learning outcomes for students in the MSN to a broader set of audiences in and beyond Haiti — especially the MENFP, through program learning briefs, academic publications, etc. — to contribute to both the recognition of the MSN as a model as well as inform policy and practice in and beyond Haiti.